Transaction Action

Even More Minor Moves, NL

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I'd say there's something fishy about this, but the man's career hangs in the balance on the... oh, man, am I forcing this. It's Bobby Scales, and while it was lovely to see a 11-year veteran catch a break and wind up making his big-league debut in his age-31 season, this is exactly what you'd expect to happen to him at this time of year. Hopefully, he winds up someplace where he can garner some additional service time, because wondering what's involved as far as a past-life karmic balance that leaves Scales off of a 40-man and the execrable Aaron Miles fat and happy is the sort of stuff I'll leave to Shirley MacLaine to sort out.

I'll admit, Quintanilla's one of those bench players I like, for no particularly good reason. Sure, there was a time when he was an A's prospect/suspect, and he was a star on the University of Texas team that won the College World Series in 2002 and then came up just short in 2003 when they lost in the final four to the eventual champs, Rice. He was a supplemental first-rounder in the 2003 first-round draft class that may end up being celebrated for its disappointments-after you get past Nick Markakis, Aaron Hill, and John Danks (who disappointed, got dealt, and redeemed himself), there's an awful lot of industry-wide frustration to be found in that particular round. Delmon Young was that year's top pick, Rickie Weeks was the second, and both have made it, of course... but have been something less than expected. It's amusing to remember that Adam Jones was that year's final first-round supplemental choice (37th overall), and certainly there are guys who've had to move around to achieve success that is noteworthy (David Aardsma, Carlos Quentin), as well as ones who are barely getting started (Brandon Wood, Chad Billingsley, Jarrod Saltalamacchia), all of which suggests that getting frustrated with top picks seems to be a professional hazard as far as prospect mining.

Anyway, to get back to Omar Quintanilla, he's another one of the many players from among that 37-man cadre already with another organization. He didn't turn into a middle-infield answer for the Rockies, and with a career .220/.277/.290 line entirely spent with Colorado, it seems safe to conclude he can't hit without going into the usual elaborate caveats about opportunities. The Triple-A portion of his career is little better; as with his big-league career, it's all with the Rockies' organization, and in four years hitting with the benefit of Colorado Springs' hitters' haven, he's hit .305/.372/.437, which boils down to a lot of singles and very little else. Being a left-handed batter and able to play both short and second does not make for a list long enough to guarantee job security.

At least there's the matter of his moniker. Being named Omar's cool enough, but then there's a Quintanilla on its heels, and how can you pick between the two for which is more entertaining? It's just one of those spectacular occurrences in the box score. Admittedly, given his career achievements, it's more spectacular still when you don't have a desperate interest in the outcome, but let's give the guy a break, what with his being outrighted and all.

Maybe this is a matter of having last dibs on Bourgeois, but if that's the case, it's a symptom of the club's still-weak player development program. His minor league career consistently translates into EqAs in the .240s, he's not an excellent center fielder, he has no power, and his career minor league walk rate's a tick above seven percent. For a dose of speed on the bench and the modest local notoriety of bringing back a native son of Houston, he's nice enough, but he's headed into his age-28 season, and is the sort of guy you ought to be able to scare up through minor league free agency if you aspire to merely middle-class ambitions. If he keeps his spot on the 40-man over the winter, he'll be a symptom of laziness as far as actually adding talent as well as the puddle-deep depth issue.

I doubt it's any consolation to have been outrighted to the team with the best name in Triple-A, but it's something, and if he has minor league free agency to look forward to, he can always take that into consideration.

Thomas might wind up as a situational lefty with the Bucs, so on that level, he's a worthwhile investment if you put claiming him within the context of this organization, his being optionable and cheap, and his decent velocity to spike his mix of a tailing fastball and an occasionally effective slider. That said, he wasn't that effective in Tacoma, which is why the Mariners never called him up. He's not overpowering and was nevertheless a bit wild, walking 14 of 109 lefties when he wasn't getting clobbered by right-handers. He gets credited with a lot of movement on his stuff, and maybe that can be harnessed; Jack Zduriencik obviously wasn't curious enough about how it'll turn out to want to invest a 40-man roster spot on Thomas, but the Pirates certainly can afford to be.

Burke was essentially rented from the Mariners for the month of September when injuries hit the Nats' already thin catching corps, but it's more noteworthy to keep track of this as another minor move/favor made between Mike Rizzo and Jack Zduriencik, and then ponder whether that means something for either organization once larger stakes are involved.

Christina Kahrl is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Click here to see Christina's other articles.
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Hey I like Bobby Scales's story, but every time I saw him penciled in as the starting LF for the Cubs, I cringed. Most minor league vets get a minor cup of coffee and I think the karmic gods paid Scales back enough. You'd think a team with resources like the Cubs could've scared up some left fielder to try out.

I never did get a clear idea on why Scales got more at-bats than Jake Fox or Micah Hoffpauir or _someone_ in September.

Do you think it would be overly unkind to Brian Sabean to point out that Bobby Scales gave the Cubs more offense in his limited stay than the Giants got out of the new $6 million dollar man, Freddy Sanchez?